The contents and data of computer systems or information systems can be lost after a data loss event. Therefore, backup is important for ensuring recovery of the data of the computer systems or information systems in the case of corruption, data loss, or disaster. It is desirable for computer files and data stored on a file server or a workstation to be backed up periodically by a backup and recovery system, so that the computer files and data may be restored after a data loss event. Recently, enterprises and organizations are experiencing a massive growth in data use. The rapid growth is fueled by the increasing volume and detail of information captured by the enterprises, and by the rise of usage of multimedia, social media, the Internet, and the like. As a result, the time required to backup the data of computer systems or information systems is increasing at a rapid pace as well.
Some enterprises and organizations require a second copy of the backup data to increase the safety of the data. Backing up multiple copies of the data can be accomplished through the use of a primary backup system and a replica backup system. Each time a backup is performed, the state of the computing system is determined, and all information in the current state is recorded into a backup in the primary backup system. After the backup in the primary backup system is created, the data is then replicated, e.g., copied to the replica backup system. Some backup storage systems store both incremental backups, comprising only the changes in state since the previous backup, and full backups, comprising the complete state of the storage system at the time it was made. Some backup storage systems store only full backups.
As the volume of data increases, the time required to complete the primary backup is often long. There is further delay in obtaining the second backup copy as the replication of the data does not start until the primary backup is completed. Thus, the protection window to obtain two backup copies for a computing system is often too long to comply with operational requirements of enterprises and organizations.